A Place
by LupinePhyre909
Summary: There's a place by the woods where a jutting cliff looks out over the black, glassy sea at night...  "Just a place?"  "Mmhmm. Just a place."


Stars salted the sky at night, purple-white against navy and indigo. Shadows danced beneath the trees, mimicking the swaying branches that reached upward toward the ghostly moon. Just beside the woods, where few of the braver shadows ventured, was a rolling hill, barricaded by a cliff looking over the glassy black sea. The water whispered a melody in the tranquil darkness, sighing like a wistful dreamer –

_"hush-ahh, hush-ahh" – _

– and the lonely tune slowly wove into a lullaby with the quietly listening stars. Then over the hill, something stirred, so silent it barely claimed existence. The figure of a person cast a disproportionate double of itself on the silver ground in the moonlight as it journeyed onward, toward the cliff at the edge of the sea. The stars recognized the wraith, winked down at it as stars do –

_"kshh, kshh, husssh-ahh" –_

– and let the water be their voice by way of greeting. At the edge of the cliff, the visitor stood still, its only movement the quiet rise and fall of its chest as it breathed, and looked out at the vast horizon where black sea and indigo sky met and melted together. Then the curious moonlight reached down with blind, searching fingers to reveal the wayward traveler's face, and the irony of something blind being used to see by was lost in the sound of the shimmering black waves –

_"shhh-shh, hussh-shh-ahh" – _

– as features began to take shape in the night. High, defiant cheekbones and a stubborn jaw held captive a mouth that seemed prone to a darkly amused expression and a nose that may or may not have been broken sometime long ago. The moonlight hesitated to touch the traveler's eyes, though, because even shadowed as they were, they seemed to give off their own light, burning from within and cursed by a shade of deep red like a still-beating heart. Those eyes could burn right through the glass of the sea, so lit by a fury that could never be smothered –

_"hush-ahh, kssh-shh" –_

– not even by all the tears that fell from the sky. Then, encouraged by the moonlight's brave venture to peel away the shroud of darkness over the traveler's face, a quiet, wary wind tumbled across the cliff and threaded its invisible hands through the traveler's hair, tossing and pulling at raven-black strands as though it wanted a better look at the wildly spiked, unruly mane. Moonlight and wind examined and inspected, then grew curiously silent when they discovered black shot through with deepest indigo that matched the sky and sparse white like the dying trails of shooting stars. Below the cliff, the waves whispered –

_"kssh-ahh, husssh-husssh" – _

– as if they wanted to know what was going on, too. As the stars reflected images back to them, the traveler took one step back, then another, black boots falling silent against the ground. Eyes lay closed, and for one instant, everything was still and perfect, frozen in the looking glass of the moon's face. The sea had swept back –

_"kssh-shh, shh-shhh" – _

– just for that instant, to remember what time was not, to contemplate eternity in a split second of something resembling peace; then the whole earth moved at once. The traveler leaped forward and rebounded off the edge of the cliff, catapulting high into the air and arcing into a dive, arms flung wide like they were wings. Then the ocean roared up the side of the cliff to meet the temporarily suspended figure, catching it in an icy embrace and carrying it safely past the rocks that called with siren song to the unaware. The traveler floated on its back out in the open air, cradled between the star-salted sky and the chilling black sea, never opening its frightening eyes to worry about where it was going. Waves rolled past broad shoulders and arms wrapped with steely, corded muscles and deft, callused hands –

_"hush-ahh, kssh-ahh" –_

– and broke gently over skin that knew too many scars and not enough kindness. The water bore the traveler further outward, toward an island that was really nothing more than a slightly less threatening rock, and laid him to rest on the sloping gray shore. Just like always, like it had been for every night for almost two weeks, he was already asleep –

_"shh-shh, hush-ahh" –_

– and dreaming before the waves reached the cliff again.

_"hush-ahh, kssh-shh, hushhh" -_

The next morning, cool shadows rescued Hiei from the rise of the golden sun. It hit the back of the jutting rock he slept on with a vengeance, burning away the secrets of the night, safely concealing them under a cloudless sky. The ocean was calm for a change, barely touching the side of the cliff before it washed out again shyly. And a certain redhead had found a way to traverse the tranquil sea, sitting on the shore next to Hiei and staring up at the sky.

"This is the sixth time I've found you out here. May I ask why you always choose this particular rock?"

Burning eyes flicked open; Hiei rubbed the sleep from them blearily and sat up. "No reason. It's just a place."

"A lonely place. Do you come here because you enjoy the isolation, or do you feel as though you have to endure it?" Kurama set his chin in his hand, elbow resting on one drawn-up knee.

"You're not a psychiatrist, fox," Hiei snapped, shaking salt and sand out of his hair and pulling his fingers roughly through tangles until his head didn't feel heavy and off-balance anymore. "Don't try to make yourself one."

"I'm not. My curiosity has gotten the best of me, that's all." A smile played across eyes that were the color of every summer-green leaf, every blade of grass in the spring; eyes that envy itself was jealous of.

"It certainly never gets the worst of you," was the growl of a response. "Let's go – obviously since you're here, the brat has found some other errand for us to run."

"You're determined not to tell me why you come out here, aren't you?" Kurama asked as the other youkai stood.

"I've already told you – no reason," Hiei answered. "It's just a place."

"Just a place?" Kurama stood too, eyes sliding sideways skeptically.

Hiei's eyes closed briefly as memories roared through his ears – trees and cliffs and moonlight and wind, icy black water and numbing peace and finally sleep. Then he shook his head with a wry smirk, leaping up onto the very top of the dark gray rock to brave the light of another day.

"Mmhmm. Just a place."

_A/N: Hmm. Been a while since I've updated. And this is completely random, so hey! Why not. Although I do find it amusing to see my username look like this -__ LupinePhyre909 :3 when it comes up on the search results. (Accidentally found that out when a friend wanted me to look up something of mine for them.) *sigh* All awesomely average things must come to an end, I suppose… it made me laugh while it lasted, though. :P I am very easily amused. Anywho. _

_This was originally written for Graphospasm, since I'm weird, and I wrote two pages of a short story instead of a sympathy card. So sue me. Feel better soon Graph!_

_As for other random crap, I'm working on 14 of Salt and Pepper, which may or may not be undergoing plastic surgery soon. As in title/summary change. Idk. Just depends on if I'm stupid enough to redo it. Also almost finished with a very evil idea called 'Hopeless Cases', which is one of those things I'm going to have to hide behind bulletproof glass for… oh hell…_

_Well, for better or worse, thanks for reading. I appreciate it. :)_


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